Giroud out, Ramsey starts again – Our predicted line-up vs Swansea

TEAM NEWS

Star midfielder Mesut Ozil is back in the squad after missing three games through illness but Hector Bellerin and Francis Coquelin are currently injured.

Arsene Wenger will also be without the likes of Mohamed Elneny, Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla, Per Mertesacker and Kieran Gibbs.

Petr Cech, Laurent Koscielny and Alexis Sanchez are expected to be recalled after being rested against Preston North End in last weekend’s FA Cup tie.

REASONS FOR SELECTION

Despite his prolific form in recent games – which has sugar-coated some dull performances – it is pretty clear that Olivier Giroud is best used as an impact player off the bench.

Arsenal’s fluid attack which terrorized teams at the start of the campaign contained players with pace and the intent to get at defenders. Giroud is far too ‘back to goal’ and passive to be effective against a Swansea team which is not too dissimilar from Bournemouth – who gave us serious footballing problems – in terms of style of play.

We have to be proactive with our performance at the Liberty stadium and take the game to the opposition instead of waiting for something to go wrong to respond…as it has being in the last two games. And for that direct, proactive approach, players with mobility like Alexis Sanchez, Lucas Perez and Alex Iwobi will be key.

Aaron Ramsey in a deep midfield role has often resulted in defensive nightmares and if it was not for the unavailability of Francis Coquelin and Mohamed Elneny, the Welshman would have no place in this line-up despite last Saturday’s goal.